Weekend Links 6-26-20

Congratulations on making it through another week. The best news of the week was the announcement that Major League Baseball will return July 23 or July 24. They will play only 60 games instead of the normal 162 game season so there's an excellent chance that crazy things will happen. Bring it on. In the meantime, here are a few things that caught my eye this week.

Marvin Olasky reminds us that while we have been missing baseball we have been missing the best of games.

A profile of the widely prolific author of the Perry Mason novels, Erle Stanley Gardner.  I have read a couple of these books and have found them to be very enjoyable. On a related note, what Perry Mason taught us about the criminal justice system. 

Strange, but true: the U. S. Government developed a plan during the Cold War for nuking the moon. 

Most of us are being bombarded with notifications these days. The best thing to do is turn off the notifications and read a good book. 

Revisiting the creators of classic crime fiction. On a related note, I just finished Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time and it was excellent. 

Long read of the week: how one man created the world's largest virtual pub quiz. 

Video of the week:

Give credit where credit is due: this video published by the Kansas City Royals is just perfect. The narrator is Bob Kendrick who is president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. Just the message we need to hear in these difficult times.

Together, we’re always stronger.

Together, we’re #AlwaysRoyal. pic.twitter.com/HWyDpUP4bb

— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) June 24, 2020

Weekend Links 6-19-20

Happy Friday! Here is your roundup of interesting articles for your weekend reading.

Archaeologists have located London's oldest theater which dates back to the 16th century.

Lessons learned from Alan Jacobs' How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds. This looks like a good book to read.

I don't necessarily believe the British Museum is haunted but the article is interesting to read anyway.

Charles Dickens had a complicated relationship with the police force of his day which is personified in his character Insepctor Bucket from Bleak House. 

Long read of the week: How Four Americans Robbed the Bank of England.

The mystery surrounding Hattie McDaniel's missing Oscar. McDaniel made history in 1939 by being the first black performer win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Gone With the Wind.

This Sunday is Father's Day here in the United States. Here's a history of how the holiday came into being. 

Somehow this article on the enduring appeal of Peanuts really resonated with me. 

An appreciation for Alan Bradley's Flavia De Luce novels. I have read a couple of these and have thoroughly enjoyed them. 

Weekend Links 6-5-20

We are back after an unexpected hiatus. Actually, I had taken some time off from the day job and consequently spent less time online than normal. As a result, this week's post is a little bit longer as I have been saving a few things that I had wanted to share. Hopefully this week's post will offer you will a needed diversion from the concerns of the week.

As I write this I am waiting for baseball to return. Tom Verducci from Sports Illustrated checked in with Vin Scully to see how he is recovering from his recent fall. Turns out he is missing baseball too. 

Meanwhile, MLB.com writers share their favorite baseball books. Lots of great titles on this list. 

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Negro Baseball Leagues. Check out this article on why black baseball still matters after all this time. 

Recently at Arlington National Cemetery they opened a 105 year old time capsule. They discovered that the contents had hardly aged. 

Nostalgia alert: Necco Wafers will soon be available in stores again.

This is a fascinating story: a real life Lord of the Flies that turned out far differently from the novel. 

Ranking the 10 best Sherlock Holmes stories.

Why is classic crime fiction still so popular? You can't do any better than asking Martin Edwards. His book The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books is an indispensable resource. 

More interesting history: How the Black Plague gave rise to the British pub culture.

Alan Jacobs' advice to journalists: stop saying "experts".

This brings back memories: the history of Pac-Man.

An appreciation of one of the best crime dramas of all time: The Rockford Files.

Finally, if there is one writer I can heartily recommend in these dark times it is P. G. Wodehouse. His sunny dispositon and endless optimism is the perfect antidote to these dark times. This New Yorker article explores what happened to Wodehouse following his ill-advised radio broadcasts from Germany during his internment.  Meanwhile, this BBC article headline says it all: the man who wrote the most perfect sentences ever written.